View full sizeJohn O'Boyle/The Star-LedgerNJ Transit executive director Jim Weinstein tells riders on the No. 78 bus between Newark and Secaucus that their bus route will continue operating. Previously NJ Transit had announced that the No. 78 bus would be discontinued.

A couple hours after dawn overtook dusk, Tamara Jones found her usual seat on her usual NJ Transit bus. She boarded the No. 78 at Newark Penn Station with worries about how she would get to her job in Secaucus when her usual bus route was discontinued Sept. 1.

A half-minute into the ride early Tuesday, it became apparent this would be anything but a usual trip.

"The service is going to continue exactly as it is," a well-dressed man told passengers on the 7:53 a.m. bus.

With those words from NJ Transit executive director Jim Weinstein, the No. 78 bus route from Newark to Secaucus was spared.

NJ Transit in May announced it would discontinue service on five bus routes — including the No. 78 — and adjust service on six others. But after an outcry from riders, who said they had no reasonable alternatives to get to work, NJ Transit has decided to save the 78.

Weinstein and Joyce Gallagher, NJ Transit’s vice president and general manager of bus operations, delivered the good news personally as they rode the bus from Newark Penn Station to Secaucus Junction.

"Outstanding," said Kenneth Simpsonking of Long Branch. "Because that’s been a big concern we all had."

Simpsonking, a database administrator, computed that taking the train to Secaucus would have cost him an extra $100 a month on top of the $308 a month he already spends — a 33 percent increase.

Riders on the 78 bus have been trying to devise backup plans since hearing two months ago that their route was targeted for removal in a cost-cutting measure.

"I had absolutely no idea how I was going to get to work," said Jones, of Irvington, a health and welfare associate who works in Secaucus.

During two days of public hearings last month on the proposed cuts, riders on the 78 bus showed up in the greatest numbers.

View full sizeJohn O'Boyle/The Star-LedgerNJ Transit vice president and general manager Joyce Gallagher and executive director Jim Weinstein exit the No. 78 at the Secaucus transfer station after telling riders on the bus between Newark and Secaucus that their bus route will continue operating. Previously NJ Transit had announced that the No. 78 bus would be discontinued.

Many of the riders work part-time at UPS in Secaucus. The 78 bus got them to their jobs quicker and more cheaply than taking a train to Secaucus and riding a shuttle bus the rest of the way.

Under the alternative scenario, Weinstein noted, "You were actually forcing people to spend two hours traveling for a four-hour job."

The reorganization is being done to save NJ Transit $3.1 million, although $1 million would be reinvested into new projects, including all-day bus service in the heavily traveled region between Newark Penn Station, Newark Liberty International Airport and Elizabeth.

Service is still scheduled to be discontinued on the No. 42 bus line (Newark-18th Avenue), No. 43 (a peak-hour route between Newark and Jersey City), No. 75 (between Butler and Newark) and No. 93 (between Bloomfield and Newark Light Rail). They would be the first NJ Transit bus routes eliminated in about 25 years.

NJ Transit has 260 bus routes that carry 520,000 customers each day.

The 11 routes targeted for adjustments or closure average 14 customers per hour, well below the NJ Transit systemwide average of 24 customers an hour, and 16 customers per trip — less than half the systemwide average of 36 customers a trip.

The 78 bus from Newark Penn Station Tuesdayt morning carried 58 passengers by the time it got to Secaucus Junction about 40 minutes later.